n_.

"They didn't need sending equipment, Barney," he said. "They used
ours. Sid Harrington was poisoned in Konkrook. The news, of course,
was sent out at once, as the geeks knew it would be, to every
residency and trading-station on Ullr, and that was the signal they'd
agreed upon, probably months in advance!"

"Well, what was our Intelligence doing; sleeping?" Keaveney demanded
angrily.

"No; they were writing reports for your civil administration blokes to
stuff in the wastebasket, and being called mailed-fist-and-rattling-sabre
alarmists for their pains." He turned away from Keaveney. "Barney, where
is Dirk Prinsloo?"

"Aboard his ship. He hitched a ride to the airport with Jarman, when
he was here picking up air-crews."

"Call him. Tell him to take the _Aldebaran_ to Kankad's Town, at once;
as soon as he arrives there, which ought to be about 1100, he's to
pick up all the Kragans he can pack aboard and take them to Konkrook.
From then on, he'll be under Them M'zangwe's orders."

"To Konkrook?" Keaveney fairly howled. "Are you nuts? Don't you think
we need reenforcements here, too?"

"Yes, I do. I'm going to try to get them," von Schlichten told him.
"Now pipe down and get out of people's way."

He crossed the room, to where two Kragans, a male sergeant, and the
ubiquitous girl in the orange sweater were struggling to get a big
circular TV-screen up, then turned to look at the situation-map. A
girl tech-sergeant was keeping Paula Quinton and Mrs. Jules Keaveney
informed.

"Start pushing geeks out of the Fifth Zirk Cavalry barracks," the
sergeant was saying. "The one at the north end, and the one next to
it; they're both on fire, now." She tossed a slip into the wastebasket
beside her and glanced at the next slip. "And more pink pills back of
the barracks and stables, and move them a little to the north-west;
Kragans as skirmishers, to intercept geeks trying to slip away from
the cavalry barracks."

* * * * *

A young Kragan with his lower left arm in a sling and a daub of
antiseptic plaster over the back of his head came up and gave him a
radioprint slip. Guido Karamessinis, the Resident-Agent at Grank, had
reported, at last. The city, he said, was quiet, but King Yoorkerk's
troops had seized the Company airport and docks, taken the _Procyon_
and the _Northern Lights_ and put guards aboard them, and were
surrounding the Residency. He wanted to know what to do.

Von Sch